‘Scrape That Barnacle’: Commanding Underwater Robot In-Contact Manipulation Tasks with Intuitive Spatial-Temporal-Force Features

Ramya Challa, Hunter Brown, Chirag Jain, Zachary Speiser, Heather Knight

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Keywords: Underwater Robot, In-Contact Manipulation

Abstract:

How might a robot operator command underwater robot in-contact manipulation tasks? One of the boons of modern language models is the flexibility of what you can describe, and physical tasks have universal features, in that they occur in space and time, and that physics will predict certain outcomes (like an unstable block tower falling over). This work seeks to command spatial-temporal-force priorities and strategies between a human operator and robot, such that it can effectively perform underwater in-contact manipulation tasks, introducing a notation, study design, and ongoing theory building of effective command features. If successful, we expect such paradigms to cross apply to other out-of-water domains, such as giving an elderly person a sponge-bath, which we all know should be a gentler operation than hull cleaning. These kinds of adverbs are our hypothesized critical features.

Submission Number: 8